District updates information on PPC progress and election

Following the approval of the Arkansas State Board of Education on December 13, the Fort Smith Public Schools administration has engaged American Arbitration Association to coordinate the development of a certified personnel and policies committee (PPC).

The total cost of this election is projected to be $8,000-$9,500. The agreement with the American Arbitration Association, the election services provider, guarantees that the balloting will be secret and that a third party will tabulate the results in compliance with our district's waiver. Run-offs could increase that amount. Because the PPC will develop its own procedures for conducting the election in future years, this is projected to be a one-time cost.

Each school building will have at least one representative and as many as three based on the size of the teaching staff for a total of 35 building representatives. One of three administrative appointment will be held by a representative of group of specialized employees who work in a variety of positions throughout the schools including nurses, speech language pathologists and those responsible for instructional technology programming.

February 8, 2019 PPC UPDATE:

With the nomination and ballot certification rounds complete, the voting round for PPC representatives will begin February 10 and continue through 11:59 PM on February 15.

The following is information that is being distributed and discussed in schools at this time. This document is being updated as needed. The date at the bottom of each page represents the version.

The voting round for PPC representatives ended at 11:59 PM on February 15, 2019. Teachers at Barling, Beard, Carnall, Chaffin, Euper Lane, Orr, Adult Education, Spradling, Tilles, and Trusty did not vote because the number of nominees at these locations was the same as the number of PPC representative positions available. By the end of the voting round, 396 (47%) of the 837 voters in schools holding elections had participated in the election of PPC representation for their school.

The run-off round of elections for PPC representatives ended at 11:59 PM on February 25, 2019. These two additional elections resolved ties for the Belle Point: A New Tech Academy position and one of two positions at Kimmons Junior High School.